NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN/WATE) — A bill that would allow public schools to refuse to enroll “a student who is unlawfully present in the United States” went to the Senate’s Education Committee Wednesday. The bill passed Tennessee’s Senate Education Committee by a vote of 5-4.
Senator Bo Watson (R-Hixson) spoke during the debate, citing strain on the state’s budget as one of the primary reasons this legislation was filed.
“I am offended by this legislation,” Senator Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis) said. “…People do not come to this country just because. It is because they have no other option.”
Akbari and Watson mentioned the rescinded resolution from the Rutherford County School board advocating for the closure of the United States’ southern border. That resolution called for increased funding to handle the influx of students who don’t speak English.
Watson said his bill was focused on finances, citing what he said was ESL costs that more than doubled statewide from 2016 to 2018, to $198 million.
A new amendment to the bill states students would have to verify their citizenship status and if they can’t, public school districts would be allowed to essentially charge them tuition. If the student doesn’t pay, the district would have the option to deny enrollment.
The bill would also require all school systems to ask all enrolling families to show documentation that their student is either a citizen, “in the process of obtaining citizenship” or is a legal immigrant or here on a visa.
Akbari specifically asked Watson whether the bill included that requirement and he said it does. The Tennessee Department of Education would have to promulgate a new rule to deal with the bill’s provisions, including how school systems would go about getting and keeping the information on legal status.
The bill would reverse a 43-year national precedent based on a 1982 Supreme Court decision. In Plyler v Doe, the court “held that illegal alien children living in the United States could not be excluded from a free public education based upon their immigration status,” the bill reads.
Voting in favor of the bill (Watson is not a member of the committee) were chair Dawn White (Murfreesboro), Bill Powers (Clarksville), Joey Hensley (Hohenwald), Adam Lowe (Calhoun) and Rusty Crowe (Johnson City).
In the Senate, the bill now moves to the Finance Ways and Means Committee. The House version, sponsored by William Lamberth, is scheduled for the K-12 Subcommittee on March 11.
